Auf Wiedersehen, Berlin!

      Bundestag /Government buildings
Every good thing comes to an end...and we have to say good-bye to our adopted Berlin home after 3 weeks. Since i also made a side trip to my old haunts (Heimat) in Ireland in the meantime, time really sped by fast. I will repost about that briefly here. It was not a home exchange.
Hubby and I had a wonderful time. The flat was exactly as described,  nicely appointed and well-kept. Our watering of all their window boxes not too much bother. We enjoyed the location and can highly recommend it for anybody considering going to visit Berlin.
At the end of a home swap, people exchnage a review which I will do shortly. We sometimes keep in touch with our exchnage partners. I talked about it recently on Facebook (Intrepidhomeswappers) when one Sunday afternoon we met up with a couple who have become our friends. We had an exchange with the in the Stuttgart area three years ago. Elisabeth is her name and she created her on website for prospective swapping partners to check out the area where they live in detail, what they have to offer and see many photos. It is called Home Exchange Germany on Facebook.
 (BTW she also published her first book, although in Germany).
                                                                                                                                            
We learned from our Berlin partners that they are off to Spain in August for another exchnage and will be in the Washington area in October on yet another one.Traveling can be so cheap when you  do home swaps!

Tip of the day comes from hubby: When you go to Europe or Germany in particular, you will need adapters to connect you to the German round 2-prong-system. Do bring enough extension cables so that you have enough power points for all your electrical needs, be that smartphones, iPads, laptops, shavers etc. He also travels with a long Ethernet cable in case we get a shoddy Internet connection. Today I learned he also has a HDMI cable which will hook us up to our Netflix subscription at home on a German TV--just for a rainy day...

A Visit to Potsdam

Describing the town of Postdam - it's hard to know where to start.Situated about 10 km from Berlin suburbs like Charlottenburg where we stayed, this town has so much to offer.It played an important role in German history and is a beautiful little town, surrounded by lakes, marshes and forests.
The magnificent castle of Sanssouci comes to mind first.

                                                                                             
The smallish castle is a gem with beautiful gardens and water fountains. It was built by "The Old Fritz", as this king was lovingly called ( King Friederich II of Prussia or Friederich the Great, * 24. January 1712 in Berlin; † 17. August 1786 in Potsdam). He got his name for being a successful yet reluctant king, statesman and hero -  he won 3 so called Silesian Wars and the 7-Year War establishing Prussia as a super power besides Austria, England, France and Russia in the 18th century.
A friend of Voltaire, he was dedicated to the idea of Enlightenment; he abolished torture and practiced tolerance towards the Huguenots and Catholics..
                                               
We had visited the castle on a winter day winter before a couple of years ago. It was a joy to stroll through the gardens on a summer's afternoon.
 
                                       

When visiting Potsdam, the Dutch Quarter is a must. The Old Fritz had it built primarily by Dutch builders who were used to building on swampy land. It still resembles Dutch towns; the quarter is a cute little town in itself with lots of cafes, restaurants and boutiques vying for your attention.
                                        

Potsdam maybe mostly known for its role at the end of World War II. The three heads of state, Josef Stalin, Truman, Winston Churchill and later France met in Potsdam's Cecilienhof  (another castle) to discuss the future of Germany in July- August 1945. The Allies signed the Potsdam Treaty which effectively decided paved the way for denazification, the establishment of democracy and the rebuilding of Germany. Until 1989 when the wall fell, Potsdam, however, remained in the hands of the Russians and under GDR rule (German Democratic republic=communist Germany and not so democratic at all!).
So worth a day trip! We still want to go back on day.

Berlin's Green Heart & Belt

                                                   
A little known fact about Berlin is that is has wide areas of parks for recreation, located primarily in the south west of the center but also throughout the capital; Tiergarten,  Botanische Garten and the vast expanse of the Grunewald. In the middle of the upper picture you can see the Siegessauele, a national monument to commemorate several wars (built between 1868-1873) and well-known landmark.

                                             
This was already the most important region for R & R for the common populace 100 years ago, long before the World Wars.It encompasses about 1,000 acres and several lakes.When Germany was still divided and the wall up, it was the biggest recreational area in the west of the city. The Grunewald has been mentioned in an old popular song from 1929: There is an wood auction in Grunewald. Funny title? Listen to this almost 90 year old recording of this song!
The Grunewald Tower below was built about 100 years ago. We were too lazy to climb it but enjoyed the "Biergarten & Restaurant" next to it very much on a hot day (about 90 degrees). Here we found a lovely breeze when the rest of the city was rather stifling.
                                                        
Another song recording from the 1951 gives you a glimpse of the famous lake Wannsee in the Grunewald:Pack your Swimming Trunks! (Pack die Badehose ein).
Nothing much has changed except that Berlin has gained its freedom!
Approaching Berlin from the air above Potsdam (more about Potsdam in my next post.)

                                                        

See Berlin by Boat

The best way to get a good overall impression of Berlin is to go on a bus or a boat tour. We'd done a bus tour before and were hoping for a bit of a breeze on the water in this hot weather. There are many boat rides of the "hop on and hop off "kind. They will take you along the two rivers, Spree and Havel, and even on the canal if you so choose.
It was an extensive trip of 3 and a half hours. We saw the most famous parts of Berlin, the government buildings, a few remnants of the wall, new fancy apartment buildings built in what used to be the former East; 1 million plus apartments without a kitchen because the logical thinking is that their clients work all day and go out for meals.
We learned that Berlin has more bridges (969) than Paris or even Venice (410). I just learned that Hamburg has even more :2485.
This is the famous and beautiful Oberbaumbruecke where in the 1800s citizens threw felled trees and logs into the water to make boats pay a tariff on their passage over the river. Only after paying did they remove the obstacles and let the boats through.

Other bridges were not architecturally important, but noteworthy in their surroundings. With this one you had to remain seated and duck down as it was so low.

Romantic or at least picturesque corners everywhere, especially on the canal.

Locks always make for interesting viewing. Here there was a man who was inside the restaurant watching the boat being heaved by more than 1 m to the higher level. He started to close the windows of the restuarant until his wife explained to him that it was not the water that was rising...


If you're into sailing, you're spoilt for choice because Berlin is surrounded by a myriad of lakes; also by many forests which can be explored by bike and on foot as well. More about that another time.

In the Heart of Europe

Today we are on the Gendarmenmarkt (Gendarmes Market from " Gens des armes"), in the center of Berlin and Berlin is situated in the middle of Europe.It's considered one of the most beautiful markets. It started as market for fresh country wares where soldiers also paraded their horses, musicians played and tight rope walkers showed off their skills.
The first building that was erected was a church for Huguenots in 1705 by Friedrich I. Three years later, opposite the square the German Church was built. For good measure so that the arts weren't given short shrift, in between a French comedy theater was built. Thus faith, spirituality and physical well being were all looked after.

Around the market place, homes are being built as well as cafes and restaurants where journalists and literati met. The theater burnt down and was rebuilt in 1841 by the famous German architect Schinkel. After falling to ruins during the Second World War, it's now standing in its full glory again.
This part of Berlin fell into Russian hands and belonged to the GDR where the Alexander-Ensemble sang their melancholic Russian melodies until the wall fell.It's only in short walking distance of the building of the former Nazi central command.
When the wall came down, Leonard Bernstein directed Beethoven's 9th here, or the Ode to Joy. He modified the words of the German text from "Freude schoener Goetterfunken"  to "Freiheit schoener Goetterfunken", ie.Freedom to Joy.
And of course, the before mentioned biggest chocolatery is just around the corner.

The wall came down at the end of 1989. The city and country have been unified since then and Berlin has become the German capital again. Friends of my generation, however, still call it "the East" and don't even like "going to the East"...although it is a resplendent part of town with so much to see (Humboldt University, German Dome etc...)

Perfume in the Air

A wonderful jasmine scent is in the air. Since we arrived jasmine bushes have been in full bloom with their intoxicating fragrance. 

In our beautiful neighborhood many houses have mature shrubs like this, but all over Berlin you get a whiff of it. The American Confederate Jasmine has a strong perfume too, but is a climber and a different shrub.

Another evening spent watching football. Two matches kept our attention: Hungary against Portugal:3-3; unexpected with megastar Rinaldo not being able to take it home for his team.Then, I wasn't expecting much after their loss earlier in the week, Ireland almost in the last minute beat Italy, one of the champions.The atmosphere in the Lille Stade in France was ecstatic. The trophy for jeering their team clearly went to Northern Ireland who didn't win but never stopped their chants in total support of this underdog. So we have a 4-islan-quartet through to the qualifying round: England, Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Writing about football as if I really cared....Just my patriotic streak making me watch all these matches.